This is a fractured memoir, steeped in the language and images Rogers
was raised on: Kipling's Just So Stories, Dorothy Parker quips, song
lyrics, Beat diatribes, the visual gymnastics of cummings, Victorian
children's stories, fairy tales, and the crumbling beauty and very real
danger of downtown Detroit. Rogers' writing is closely related to the
lyrical tradition, though she's also interested in narrative, mystery,
memory, and the possibilities for language to create an emotional effect
on a reader. Rogers is drawn to the nature of utopian impulses -- from
nineteenth century spiritual movements to 1960s radicalism to our hopes
for Obama -- and the ways these impulses break down. Research subjects
include: The Shakers, John Sinclair, the MC5, communes, hippie
cookbooks, shamanism, Surrealism, Detroit and Joseph Cornell.